I was just wondering around my garden racking up the leaves and found this massive thing. Any ideas what it is?

 

Send the photo to the Ministry of Agriculture I think they were saying saying something about giant caterpillars a while ago but I cant remember what

I remember them talking about a hairy caterpillar that was dangerous over the summer but can’t find anything about large caterpillars.

Ive emailed the pics to my gramps who is very knowledgeable about these things.

Looks like a Horribilis Beno.☠️

Chafer grub:

https://gardening.which.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/115000658109-Chafer-grubs

Well my gramps took one look and said it’s a stag beetle larvae. Took a quick look on google and it looks the same to me. We do get a lot of stag beetles our way. I never thought stag beetles started out like that.

Nope its definitely a cockchafer larva

Also known as a May bug as you generally only see them in May. They live for up to 5 years underground before coming to the surface if you've dug that one up it would have matured next May. 

And I have no idea why I know crap like that!

What they look like when grown

Why on earth would they call it a cockchafer? [emoji28]

1 hour ago, Joely P said:

Why on earth would they call it a cockchafer?

 

There's the rub - who knows.